“Did someone say magic!,” comes Effulgyn’s tenor. He lowers himself off of the cart, hands Asterix a carrot head to munch on, then walks to the young rabbits. He holds a copper coin in one hand, obvious to most of the children, poorly trying to “hide” it in his palm. He crouches down beside the youngest one and, with a smile, points to his long ear, asks his permission with raised eyebrows, and “magically” pulls the copper coin from the young one’s ear, a trick so badly performed that everyone — even the youngest bunny—sees through it immediately, as he raises the copper for all to see.

“Look what I’ve pulled from your ear!,” he smiles, his lips puckered in playful astonishment. 

He hands the copper to the lad, and says to the oldest one who addressed Ferg, “You’re not fooled by that are ya, practically an adult. I’ll wager you know a lot more about what’s what than many of yer elders. They’d probably have a lot t’ learn from ye. But what’s goin on in the plains—even you might not know that, eh?”

The littlest one takes the copper piece, smiling toothily at Effulgyn who notices that her teeth are quite a lot shorter than those of the others. 

"Fanks!" she says, pocketing the coin. "What else've you got in your pockets I wonder?"

The other two Rabbits jump in.

"Where is our coin?" the one to Cony's far left says. He is wearing a blue scarf despite how warm it is this late morning. 

"Yeah where's ours?" the round one says. 

"Bet they have lots of coins they can spare don't they"

"Bet they do"

Cony claps his hands to silence them. 

"Maybe they do" he says, "but we're not here for practice or for trouble. Mah was very stern with us wasn't she? Can't have Dah hear bout it when he comes back." 

Once the younger ones are quiet again he looks at Effulgyn. "All kinds of things happen in the Plains don't they?" he says. "All kinds of stuff with the winged wars going on and an army."

"Yeah a whole army of ghosts!" the youngest one says. "A whole invisible army!" 

"Ghosts aren't invisible though Brie" Cony corrects, quite gently.

"Prove it wasn't an army of ghosts!" Brie challenges. "Prove it then!"

"Yeah you weren't there were you Cony?" the one with the scarf says.

"Yeah you weren't were you" the rounder one says. 

And this goes on for a bit. 

"...Ghost army?" Fin had picked up his pack, partly to secure it from prying children, partly to find something to give them. The idea of a ghost army was insane, but he'd seen stranger things.

((Any background knowledge we would realistically have about the Winged War? If a check is needed, I'll roll, but it sounds current enough to be at least somewhat familiar.))

At being asked about what they have found for beer etc... Ferg says "It wouldn't be a good researcher who gives away the things they find to just anyone would it?  We have a few things but must be moving on in order to find the rest."  He waits for the others to finish playing around a bit while keeping a close eye on his own possesions. 

No history check needed--but an Investigation check could be in order, if needed based on the clue below:

None of you have ever heard of something referred to as a Winged War. In your history classes you learned that Gargoyles and Aaracokra have had feuds over territories along the Mt Voture ranges--these predate the colonization of the area by Pun and her disciples (for lack of a better word to describe them.) Perhaps Beres has its own language for things, or perhaps something recent is going on. 

"Best keep ourselves moving on"

((5))

"Right, right. But about this ghost army first..."

“Well, alright. Looks like we’ll have to be careful as we go, eh?,” asks Effulgyn. He ruffles the fur on the little girl’s head. “Be. Good.,” he says, smiling.

He hops back into the driver’s bucket and takes up the reins. “This road lead straight through town?,” he asks Cony. “Doesn’t branch and get us lost?”

The smallest one, Brie, tugs on Cony's arm. "We can escort 'em can't we?" She says. "For a fee" she adds.

"Yeah we can bodyguard 'em!" the one to the far left says.

"Yeah Dah says we're too young still but we could show him!"

"Yeah we could all get the coppers and maybe the silvers and golds too" Brie says, peering toward the cart. "An' maybe more besides".

Ash speaks for the first time, making sure to let his arm glint in the sunlight. 

"No, we don't need an escort." he says, with a definite finality. 

Cony looks at the arm with obvious wonder. "We still have stuff to do anyway" he says, after a moment. 

"Can I touch it?" Brie asks, reaching out. But Ash is already starting to walk away. 

OOC - Any parting questions for these youth? Otherwise you can leave them standing on the side of the road there. You're now less than an hour from Beres and should get there right around lunch time. 

((About that ghost army...there wouldn't happen to be any reclusive royal heirs trapsing about calling in promises/debts/Oaths from the past, would there?...))

Fin your previous investigation check was specifically about the mention of "winged wars" and didn't yield much--maybe try another roll specifically about this. 

((Lol no worries, just a shameless Lord of the Rings reference. I figure if he doesn't know about the Winged Wars, he probably wouldn't know much about ghost armies.))

Ferg could see that things might get out of hand if they waited much longer.  "Let's go people, time waits for no gnome"  He keeps a careful eye on the rabbitfolk just in case there are quick moves or anything unexpected.

Effulgyn clicks his tongue and sets Asterix in motion. Brewing supplies in the back clatter lightly as the cart lurches forward.

Once on the way, he muses, “Tough life out here, isn’t it. But at least, they’ve got each other.” The halfling quietly sings drinking songs from Voture Village until they arrive at the outskirts of Beres.

About 15 minutes after leaving the rabbitfolk behind, Fin finally breaks out, "Are we just going to be content knowing there's serious trouble not an hour in front of us? What do you suppose it could be? We're not really meant to solve issues like that, we're just passing through. Just travellers passing through...."

“Well, look here. Those little rabbit folk were cute as could be, though dangerous too, but I put that at the parents’ bunnyfeet not theirs. But that doesn’t matter—they’re young and I don’t know ‘em. I don’t find more than the barest kernel of fact in what they said, barely enough to sprout the weakest stalk o’ corn and not strong enough to walk on or base any actions upon. If they were adults, maybe I’d say different…

”Now, suppose, despite themselves—suppose what they said was honest and true. Still: What’s there t’ say, Finnie, except we’ve gotta keep an eye out. And we’ve gotta do that anyhow, haven’t we?”

Quote from Barlow >>

((Lol no worries, just a shameless Lord of the Rings reference. I figure if he doesn't know about the Winged Wars, he probably wouldn't know much about ghost armies.))

 hahahah that went wayyyyyy over my head even though I have read the books and watched the movies like a billion times :o

And on that sobering note, the companions continue their way to Beres which appears almost suddenly as a growing dark mass in the distance preceded by ever-thickening trees that appear in small clusters at first, but thicken into great patches. Effulgyn with his farming background notices that the ground on either side of the road--especially the Plains side--seems to become richer as well, better for farming. Indeed, you start to pass a few small farmsteads scattered here and there, growing innocuous grains and fruits by the looks of it. 

Beres doesn't announce itself as a town so you almost don't realize you have arrived until you find yourself in one of those patches of trees--tall and old--with a fork cleaved right in the middle, forcing you to choose between two roads. You can continue south where you can see there are some buildings on either side of the road, or you can turn right for the first time since you started this journey. There are buildings on either side of the road here too--larger and more commercial looking, you wager. (The map is here). 

(OOC - Nice! where are we on the map? And what’s our heading?)